Philippians 4.4–7 & John 1.19–28
Grace to you and peace from God our Father the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We’re looking forward to Christmas. It’s the main event at this point. And that being the case, it’s very easy to overlook John. Afterall, there’s nothing splendid about him. He isn’t the Christ himself. He isn’t Elijah the Tishbite come back down from heaven in a whirlwind and chariots of fire. He isn’t the Prophet promised by Moses. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” That’s all. It would be easy to disregard him, to overlook him, and not pay any attention to his testimony.
That’s what the Jews send from Jerusalem end up doing, after all. The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” This was a big deal. Jerusalem was the religious center of Judaism. The temple and priesthood were there. The Sanhedrin—the council of the elders of Israel—was there. It was probably the Sanhedrin who sent this delegation to Bethabara where John was baptizing. This delegation of priests and Levites from Jerusalem were sent out into the wilderness for one purpose: To find out who John thinks he is to preaching and baptizing as he is.
There must have been rumors circulating that John was the Messiah, because John confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” He lays that rumor to rest immediately. The delegation presses further, “What then? Are you Elijah?” This is a legitimate question. The Lord had said through the prophet Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Mal 4:5-6). Based on this prophecy, the Jews imagined that Elijah the Tishbite himself would return before the coming of the Messiah. John simply confesses, “I am not.” Then they ask, “Are you the Prophet?” They may have been asking him if he was a prophet, but it seems more likely that they were asking him if he was the prophet, the one whom the Lord foretold through Moses. He said in Deuteronomy 18:18-19, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.” John simply replies, “No.”
With that confession, John pushes aside every bit of speculation as to who he is and every vain conceit that would come with it. But he will not be mistaken for the Messiah who comes to save Israel. He will not speak evasively so that people may still think he’s Elijah, come back from heaven. He won’t let anyone postulate that he is the Prophet. Nor will He allow anyone to give him an ounce of glory that belongs to another. But the delegation has a job to do, and we can almost hear the exasperation as they ask him again, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” So, John answers and confesses: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the LORD,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
John has nothing more to say about himself than what the prophet Isaiah said centuries before. Isaiah said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’” John is this voice, crying out—preaching—that all people must prepare the way of the Lord. He speaks of people’s hearts. The valleys are the lower things in the human heart—sin, lust, covetousness, and the like—these are to be repented of and leveled out. The mountains and hills are pride, spiritual arrogance, and the conceit which causes men to think more highly of themselves than they ought. These sins are hard and unyielding, so they must be demolished just as earthly mountains and hills are demolished in preparation for a highway to be built. The crooked places and rough places are sin as well, and these must be reconfigured through repentance.
This answer doesn’t suit the delegation from Jerusalem though. “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” It wasn’t that they had a problem with the idea of baptism for repentance and the remission of sins (Luke 3:3). The Lord prophesied in Ezekiel 36[:25-26] that when the Messiah came, He would sprinkle clean water on His people and cleanse them from the filthiness of idolatry and give them new hearts which loved His law. He prophesied in Zechariah 13[:1] that in the days of the Messiah a fountain would be opened for His people “for sin and for uncleanness.” Their problem wasn’t with the idea that John was baptizing for the forgiveness of sin. Their problem was that if John wasn’t the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet, he had no business baptizing for the forgiveness of sin. They’re effectively saying, “Where is your call to do this?”
John replies by telling them precisely who called him to preach repentance and baptize for the remission of sins. He says, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” The One who stands among them is the Christ. He is a man. He stands among the Jews. He is among them even now. But although he comes after John in time—born after John, began His ministry after John—He is before John, because He is the eternal Son of God. John knows this because he had already baptized Him, seen the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descend and remain upon Him, and testified that this one is the Son of God. People want to think John is the Christ, but John confesses that he isn’t worthy even to loosen the sandal strap of the one who comes after Him because He is before him, being the eternal Son of God, the Lord Himself.
That is why everyone must prepare the way of the LORD and make straight in the desert a highway for our God. The One whom he heralds is the Lord God in human flesh. And the Lord God comes with to bring comfort, pardon, and peace to those oppressed by sin and its guilt. But for the Christ to enter the heart and bestow these blessings, the way must be prepared through penitence. Christ wants to come with forgiveness, peace for the conscience, and the Holy Spirit for living a new life. Unrepented sin—sin that we hold onto because our flesh likes it, sin that we protect because it comforts us—makes highway crooked and rough so that the Christ cannot enter with His forgiveness, peace, and the Holy Spirit. To those who do not prepare their hearts through repentance, Christ brings judgment, wrath, and condemnation. At the heart of impenitence is pride, which does not want to be wrong, does not want to humble itself, because it wants some of the glory for itself.
The answer is humility. Humility is always the first step of preparing the royal highway within one’s heart: acknowledging the sin, confessing that by that sin we have angered God, deserved His wrath, hurt ourselves, and others; and the humbling looking to Christ for forgiveness, not for any reason or cause within ourselves, but for the sake of His merits and death alone. The humility of penitence prepares our hearts, so that the gospel truly is good news to our heart and joy to our conscience. John’s testimony and example teaches us to prepare our hearts so that, believing the gospel, we may rejoice in the Lord always, with gentleness toward others, and prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving toward God.
The humility of repentance and the joy the gospel gives leads to more humility, and in this, John is our example. John could have puffed himself up at the fact that such an important delegation from Jerusalem had come to see him of all people. He could have gloried in the fact that the crowds were flocking to hear him and be baptized by him. But for John it isn’t about John. It’s about the one coming after him, whose sandal strap he was not worthy to loose. It is about Jesus and preparing His way. He is not the Christ. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the LORD,’ as the prophet Isaiah said. God called him to prepare a penitent people who would receive the Christ in humility and joy. Do not pass over John on the way to Christmas, but let His testimony prepare your hearts to receive Christ in the right way. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
